Riyadh Province · Saudi Arabia
Where to stay in Riyadh
Riyadh is a city in Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia, home to about 7,009,000 people. This guide covers 1 hotel in Riyadh.
- Places to stay in this guide
- 1
- Best months
- November to March
- Nearest airport
- RUH34 km · King Khalid International Airport
- Currency
- SARSaudi riyal
- Time zone
- Asia/Riyadh
- Language
- Arabic
About
About Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate.
Known by local wags as the Dead Center of the Kingdom. With few sights of interest and a brutal climate, Riyadh is a business-only destination if there ever was one, but with the arrival of increasing entertainment options like movie theatres, concerts and conventions under Crown Prince MBS, that impressions is slowly changing. Only a few days visit will give you insights into the continuing collision of tribal Wahhabi conservatism grappling with modern technology and Western influences.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Riyadh
See
Sightseeing in Riyadh requires a lot of transportation across long distances, and it can be unbearably hot to visit outside locations during the daytime. However, most sites stay open late at night and are often lit to be enjoyed mainly at night.
- Masmak Fortress
- Murabba Palace
- National Museum
- Royal Saudi Airforce Museum
- As-Sufaat
- Kingdom Centre
Do
West of Riyadh lies the edge of the Tuwaig Escarpment, also known as The Edge of the World. This is the main attraction around Riyadh, and should not be missed if you have the time for a half-day trip out of the city. The ideal way to visit the Edge is with a tour operator that takes you out to the Edge for the sunset. Often you will also get semi-traditional Saudi cooking served Arab picnic-style by the Edge. These tours can often be quite pricey, and the Visit Saudi website will claim that the route to the Edge is closed, but this is not true.
- Red Sands Desert Tour
- Dirab Golf & Country Club
- King Fadh Sports City
- KSU Stadium
- Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sport City
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Places to stay in Riyadh
1 place to stay from the chains this guide covers, each linked to its own website.
| Place to stay |
|---|
| Barceló Riyadh Olaya hotel |
Schematic: the city centre in orange, each place to stay as a dot, distance rings in kilometres.
Where to stay
Which part of Riyadh to stay in
Most of Riyadh's budget accommodation is in al-Batha. It is advised that you should check the room condition and proper functioning of all equipment (e.g. TAP/FLUSH/TV/Power Outlets etc.)in budget hotel prior to check in.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
When to go
The best time to visit Riyadh
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Riyadh are November to March. July is the warmest month, with average highs of 44 °C; April is the wettest, with about 28 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Riyadh: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is King Khalid International Airport (RUH), about 34 km from the city centre in a straight line.
Getting in
Riyadh is a long way from anywhere, so odds are fairly high you'll be arriving by plane.
Getting around
Riyadh is very much a car-oriented city, although the Riyadh Metro finally provides an alternative. There are no street addresses as such in Riyadh, as mail is delivered to post office boxes, so getting around requires knowing landmarks near the place where you want to go. The only reliable means of transport in Riyadh is a car: you would either depend on cabs or ride share apps, or you would have to rent your own car. Although many streets, roads and landmarks are marked in both Arabic & English, there are a few streets, roads and exits that are still marked in Arabic only.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
RUH · King Khalid International Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Riyadh
Eat
Eating out is one of the few pleasures of Riyadh — there's a pretty good selection of restaurants for various cuisines, ranging from cheap and hearty to fancy and expensive. Your best bet for cheap, filling meals are Riyadh's countless small Pakistani/Indian restaurants, which can fill you up with curry and rice for about SR11. Fast food places abound in Riyadh's shopping malls, with a full meal with drink averaging around SR20. If you want something other than the usual hamburgers and kebabs, Pizza Hut offers a pretty good salad buffet.
Drink
With alcohol and nightclubs banned, Riyadh's nightlife is infamously non-existent. Despite that however, the Riyadh is much more lively and vibrant during the night as the temperature cools. Shisha (water pipe) cafes, long banned, were finally allowed back within city limits from 2019 -- ask a local (or any taxi driver) for his favorite. Coffee shops can also be found in abundance throughout the city, particularly on Tahlia St (officially Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz St) in Olaya. For the foreign workers - the expats - the social life can be quite (well, comparatively) rich however. There are always a good party going on in the embassy area or in one of the compounds.
Stay safe
Riyadh is more conservative than Jeddah or the Eastern Province. Women mostly cover themselves with an abaya (available in shops everywhere in Riyadh) but covering the face has become less common as of 2018. People no longer expect non-Arab women to cover their hair, but showing excessive skin might draw unwanted attention, even in the areas most used to tourists. Read, understand and follow the guidelines in the Saudi Arabia article to stay out of trouble. LGBT rights are not recognized in the kingdom and public displays of affection, (For both LGBT and straight couples) are frowned on and might lead to criminal prosecutions.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Riyadh: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Riyadh?
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Riyadh are November to March. July is the warmest month, with average highs of 44 °C; April is the wettest, with about 28 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Riyadh?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is King Khalid International Airport (RUH), about 34 km from the city centre in a straight line.
What currency is used in Riyadh?
Saudi riyal (SAR).
Nearby
Destinations near Riyadh
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.